Nasa Cuts Critical To Langley

WASHINGTON — Administrator Michael Griffin defends his aeronautics budget to Congress, standing by a 20-percent reduction in funding during the next five years.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin rejected pleas from Congress on Tuesday to increase funding for aeronautics research, saying his top priority is resuming flights of the space shuttle and building its successor.

While describing himself as a supporter of aeronautics -- a specialty of Hampton's Langley Research Center -- Griffin told the House Science Committee he would stand by a 20 percent reduction in aeronautics funding proposed by the Bush administration over the next five years.

"I think we need to be looking at what we can do with almost a billion dollars in funding, rather than complaining constantly that it isn't enough," Griffin said.

Pressed further on whether he would support an increase in funding just to keep pace with inflation in future years, Griffin said, "My first priority will be to utilize effectively the money that we're given. I will be working with this committee and executive agencies to do that."

The fate of aeronautics funding is critical to Langley, which faces a reduction of nearly a quarter of its workforce as early as next year if proposed budget cuts are not reversed.

The immediate impact, however, would be small. NASA's 2006 budget calls for trimming aeronautics by 6 percent, or about $54 million, from this year's level. And the House Appropriations Committee has offered a spending bill that would restore that money.

Griffin said again Tuesday there would be no layoffs at least until the 2007 fiscal year, which begins in the fall of 2006.

But he also made clear he expects major changes in the type of work that research centers like Langley do and how they operate.

"They won't be necessarily the exact same missions we have performed in the past or are even performing today," he said. "The research centers should be on the cutting edge of change."

Aeronautics centers, he said, must break free of their "business-as-usual, keep-funding, keep-programs-alive" mentality that is hampering groundbreaking research.

He also hinted at some consolidation of facilities such as wind tunnels, though he stopped short of suggesting any closure of field centers.

"Just as today we no longer have manufacturers who produce slide rules, today we may well not need every wind tunnel that exists within NASA," Griffin told the committee.

A study conducted for NASA last year by the RAND Corp. concluded that NASA should continue to operate 29 of its 31 major wind tunnels.

While largely supportive of Griffin and the overriding mission of his agency -- to return Americans to the moon by 2020, with eventual travel to Mars -- congressmen said they could not support deep cuts to science, aeronautics and other NASA programs.

"Human space flight programs cannot become the sole mission of the agency," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., the committee chairman. "Figuring out how to balance those goals will be no easy task, but it is essential."

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., the committee's ranking Democrat, said 2,500 NASA employees are at risk of losing their jobs if Bush's space plan is not reformed.

"Scientific missions are being canceled, deferred or cut, and NASA's aeronautics program is on a path to becoming irrelevant," Gordon said. "I believe such actions will make it increasingly difficult to sustain support for NASA's budget in coming years, as the agency's focus is narrowed and the overall fiscal situation facing the nation worsens."

A NASA authorization bill that a House subcommittee will consider today calls for developing a national aeronautics policy to guide future budgets.

In written testimony, Griffin defended the administration's aeronautics budget plan, saying it would increase funding for vital research in aviation safety and security and in airspace systems. NASA already works with other government agencies and with industry, he noted, to develop advanced aircraft.

In the Senate, support for aeronautics appears less strong. Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee rejected a proposal by Virginia Sen. George Allen to restore aeronautics money, saying such a funding shift would undermine the space program. *